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Men’s Soccer Defeats Olivet 2-0 - Remains On Top of MIAA Standings

Saturday, October 24, 2009

On a damp, gray day at Zuidema field, the Knights prevailed over Olivet 2-0 to remain atop the MIAA.

The Knights entered the game ranked 18th in the D3soccer.com poll and 21st in the National Soccer Coaches Division III poll.

In the 50th minute, Brad Heethuis received a Dan Kmetz cross at the top of the eighteen and buried a shot into the bottom left corner of the net, putting Calvin on top 1-0. The goal came after a first half in which each team generated a few chances but couldn’t break the last line of defense and get on the board.

“We will take goals whenever they come. I thought that if we played for 90 minutes, we could slowly break down Olivet’s back line,” said Coach Chris Hughes.

As the game progressed, intensity grew higher and the physicality of play increased. A total of 32 fouls were called, with only 12 of those against Calvin. There were also 5 yellow-cards issued, three towards Olivet and two towards Calvin.

With five minutes remaining in the game, Olivet began mounting an attack and pressuring the Calvin defense, bringing goalkeeper Ethan Felsing well into Calvin’s side of half-field. Both the Calvin defense and offense responded in a big way. In the 89th minute, Alex McKenzie, executed a sly, brilliant tackle on keeper Felsing, who was possessing the ball 30 yards outside of the goal mouth. The tackle deflected the ball towards the goal and McKenzie escorted the ball into the goal via a five foot pass.

That goal marked McKenzie’s seventh on the year and solidified the Calvin victory, completing a regular season sweep of Olivet on the season. The victory also keeps Calvin on top of the MIAA. Calvin now holds an 8-1-1 record in conference play.

“We need consistency. We need to finish out every game; we can’t look past anyone,” said Hughes, regarding the remainder of the year.

Calvin returns to the field next Tuesday, hosting Albion.

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